a. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to welding masks and in particular, to welding masks having openable eye shields.
b. Problems in the Art
Welding masks are required to protect the face and eyes of the welder. Not only does it protect against the heat, sparks, and debris from hitting the welder's face and head, an eye shield also filters out harmful light, or reduces intensity of the light produced in different types of welding in order to protect the welders eyes.
Conventionally, welder's masks cover the top, sides, front, and neck area of the welder, and are removably positionable on the welder's head by adjustable straps or a cage. Because the eye shield is required to be made of very dark glass, it is difficult to see out of the mask and eye shield when not welding.
Therefore, traditional welding masks are pivotable upon the head strap or cage to allow the welder to flip the mask up when needed. This, of course, is time consuming and somewhat cumbersome, because the welder must use one free hand to do so. Repeated pivoting of the welding mask is tiresome.
There have been some attempt to improve upon this problem. Some welder's masks have independently pivotal eye shields. While it is less difficult to pivot the eye shield, rather than the entire mask, it still requires the manual effort and the freedom of one hand to do so. There have been some attempts to utilize a mechanically operated eye shield. Generally these require the welder to push a button or turn a switch which in turn mechanically pivots the eye shield open or closed. This again requires a free hand of the welder to operate the switch. It also requires some power source. If the power source is AC electrical power, the helmet must have a cord plugged into an electrical outlet, which limits movement of the welder. If battery powered, it still requires electrical circuitry to the motor, and to the switch.
Other attempts have tried to eliminate the need for the welder to use one free hand to reach up to the mask to push a switch, or manually open the eye shield. They utilize switches which are connected by wires toward the work area of the welder so that the welder does not have to reach up to the helmet. Others wire the switch to a production line wherein the switch is tripped by the passing of work objects on the line. Again, this requires the wiring to be directly connected to the helmet which limits movement of the welder and can be dangerous, or at least it can get in the way of welding operations.
The present inventor previously improved upon control of the eye shield of the welder's mask by inventing a remote controlled eye shield. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,255, the controller for actuating opening and closing of the eye shield of a welder's mask was actuated by using a radio transmitter. Therefore, all cords and wires to the welder's mask were eliminated. The transmitter could then be set in any convenient location, including being automatically tripped by work pieces along a production line, or other automatic actuations. The welder's mask was then required to carry linkage and a motor to open and close the eye shield, and a radio receiver and power source. All these could be incorporated on or within the welder's mask with minimal weight and intrusion.
The inventor has discovered that there is still room for improvement over the state of the art, especially in welding situations where it is inconvenient to utilize hands or feet to actuate a control, even if it is conveniently placed. There is further room for improvements in situations where automatic actuations of the switch controlling the eye shield is not possible, or where the welder needs to move to various positions where it is not convenient to carry a switch along.
It is further desirable to improve upon the economics, reliability, and compactness of the structure for allowing mechanical control of the eye shield. It would also be advantageous to be able to retrofit existing welding helmets with such mechanical control.
It is therefore the principle object of the present invention to provide a welder's mask with a breath controlled eye shield which solves or improves over the problems and deficiencies in the art. Another object of the present invention is to provide a welder's mask as above described which completely eliminates the need for use of the welder's hands or feet to control operation of the eye shield.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a welder's mask as above described which relies completely on the welder's inhaling and exhaling to control the opening and closing of the eye shield.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a welder's mask as above described which can be totally self-contained in a compact self-powered unit mounted unobtrusively on or in the welder's mask.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a welder's mask as above described which can effectively and reliably open and close the eye shield of a welder's mask, and keep it tightly sealed when in a closed position.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a welder's mask as above described which is economical, efficient, and durable.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a welder's mask as above described which can be easily incorporated into newly manufactured welder's masks or retrofitted onto existing masks.
Further objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more apparent with reference to the accompanying specification and claims.